Custom Trading Computers, Inc.

Monday, January 27, 2014

Your trading computer should have a direct correlation
to your trading plan. If you are an investor or swing trader, your computer
needs are not as demanding as a scalper or day trader. It’s very similar to how
your broker and your trading plan must be supportive of your particular trading
style.

Your trading computer must be able to perform (and perform well) during the
most crucial and hectic times of the day when you are putting on trades and
following your trading strategies. The majority of brokerage software and
charting applications take an incredible amount of computing power.However the requirements on theirwebsites seem low. Usually they specify only
the requirements needed to install the application; minimum specifications
listed by brokers and software vendors do not take into account all of the
other variables that are different for every trader. What other applications do
you have open; how many charts do you have open; how many order entry and level
II market depth bars do you have; how many monitors do you have operating; and
how many strategies and indicators do you have computing the data and
transforming them into easy to read visual and graphical formats.

Consider RealTick, a feature rich software vendor, as an example. On their
web site you can read that the system requirements are a Quad Core and 4GB of
RAM. How many traders do you know that would ever consider functioning with
only 4GB of RAM.

Let’s consider a combined broker and software package for example, Tradestation.
Their minimum system requirements are a single core 1.5GHz processor and 2GB of
RAM.For a power user they recommend a
multi-core at 3GHz or faster and 4GB or more. TradeStation defines a power user
as one that uses any EasyLanguage studies, large amounts of tick or intraday data
or an active trader. In other words anyone who is using their platform to
follow the markets within the trading day. This is why you purchased
TradeStation therefore everyone is a power user. There is a big difference
between the minimum and power user requirements and then they indicate “or
faster”. How much faster? Their job is to make sales and develop and grow new
accounts. Your job is to configure and setup your trading computer system.

The bottom line of all this is that the total system must be able to perform
as you wish and not be running into continuous constraints. First, you need to
ask yourself what type of trader you are. How many trades do you go through on
a monthly, weekly and daily basis? What is the average time frame in which you hold
a position? And how many different software applications do you run throughout
the trading day? The answer to each of these questions will have a direct
effect on what your needs are for your trading computer system.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Being a successful day trader is all about having as many advantages as
possible. One edge that many traders are finding to be an
absolute necessity is their day trading computer system.

There are only a few elements required for a trader to gain access to the
market. First is a strategy and trading plan. Second is a broker to get in and
out of the markets. Finally and most importantly is a trading computer to
connect to the broker and to fulfill the trading plan.

Computers are extremely useful tools and have helped financial markets gain
tremendous growth over the years by giving traders access to the markets. A
computer is your eyes and ears into the markets and one of the most important
aspects of your trading success. However, it is also usually the most
overlooked aspect of trading.

Why is it that most traders overlook the computer aspect of their trading?
Many traders believe that all computers are built the same and are essentially
equal. Ultimately they will go with whatever is cheapest or on sale. It is
worth asking yourself a few questions before you make a decision.

•Why did you pick the software that you did for
your trading?

•Why did you pick the broker that you did for
your trading?

•Why did you pick the seminar and books that you
did for your trading?

The answers to the above questions will not be the same for everyone. The
reasons may vary drastically between different traders. For some it may be
price. For some it may be because of referrals from colleagues. And for others
it may be because the features or information caught their attention. The fact
is that all trading software is not the same. All brokers are not the same. All
seminars and trading books are not the same. This applies equally to computers:
all computers are not the same. Ultimately each of the above will DO the same
thing, but each will DO it differently.

How well any given combination works for you will be specific to the needs
of your trading strategies.